On Trump and The Second Amendment

On Trump and The Second Amendment

All of the following is a quote that I am featuring (with permission) from friend, veteran, and patriot, Gordon E. Jones. I urge you to take the time to read his thoughts and to also click on the Trump URL that he presents for your evaluation.

I endorse this message.

V. Thomas Mawhinney, 5/8/16

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To my way of thinking, any candidate for President (or Congress) that will get my vote must support the U.S. Constitution – all of it, not just the parts he/she personally likes or agrees with. The oath he/she takes is:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

All of our federal politicians pledge a similar oath. The Oath does NOT include “parts of” or, “as I’d like it to read”. Until or unless that Constitution – and/or any of its Amendments – is stricken or revoked by Constitutional process, NO POLITICIAN has the right to ignore selective parts of it, or try to regulate around them. I don’t know why this is so hard to understand or accept, but we’ve already seen too much of this in recent administrations.

Also, to my way of thinking, one Amendment to that Constitution is more important than the rest, because without it the remaining Amendments would have no protections from the politicians who are attempting to re-write the Constitution in a piecemeal fashion. That Amendment is the 2nd Amendment:

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.

There are many reasons that the 2nd Amendment is important, and they have nothing to do with federal troops, hunting, or particular types of guns or magazines. The main reason is that billions of people around the world have always been disenfranchised – or killed – by governments that do not grant this type of right to their citizens. This Amendment was created by the Founders to protect the citizens of the new U.S. from their own government – a right which our forefathers did NOT have to protect them from the British government.

Without the 2nd Amendment to protect us from our own over-reaching government, our 1st Amendment (Freedom of Speech, religion, assembly, and the press), 4th Amendment (Unreasonable search and seizure), and increasingly the 10th Amendment (Powers not delegated to the federal government belong to the states, or the people) would be hollow and worthless.

Those of you who have served in our Military also took an oath:

“I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

That oath did not expire when you were discharged. In my mind, the “enemies domestic” are the ones we most have to fear, and the ones that most expose us to “enemies foreign”.

There’s been an awful lot written about Donald Trump, and some of the positions he’s taking are “unique” and “controversial” for sure. He wasn’t my first choice among the 17 Republicans that started this race – but he appears to be the Republican nominee. No candidate is perfect, but according to his own website https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/second-amendment-rights

This stance is why I will vote for Trump, and CAN NOT AND WILL NOT vote for Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders (or Biden/Warren, as has been suggested if Hillary gets indicted). The Democrat candidates have ALL taken a stance against guns, and have ALL sworn that they will take all possible measures to chip away or gut the 2nd Amendment and our right to bear arms. I cannot in good conscience vote for anyone who advocates for circumventing or destroying any part of our Constitution, particularly this part. And I know that NOT voting for any Presidential candidate is effectively voting FOR an anti – 2nd Amendment candidate, so I will ignore my dislike for other parts of Trump, and vote for him.